this morning on "early today," and the oscar goes to -- the big winners and losers at last night's academy awards. watch your step. a washington, d.c. area escalator malfunctions causing a scary pileup. and fiery flare-up. a monster explosion of a spectacular wave of a monster explosion of a spectacular wave of plasma. captions paid for by nbc-universal television very good morning to you. i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with the king of the night.

at last night's academy awards, the highest ranking members of hollywood's royalty looking on, a film about the struggles of royal family stole the show. stephanie stanton has the latest from hollywood. >> reporter: there were no major surprises this year. of the ten films for best picture, critics say it all came down to two, the king of social networking versus the king of england. >> "the king's speech." >> reporter: a film about a stammering monarch earned a place among hollywood royalty sunday night. it won four academy awards including best picture. >> to have been part of a film that touched and moved people has been a huge privilege. >> reporter: colin firth earned best actor. >> i have a feeling my career has just peaked. >> reporter: "the king's speech" also took best original screen play and best director for tom hooper who saluted his lead actors. >> i'm only here because of you guys. >> reporter: there was no

surprise in the best actress category. natalie portman completed a near sweep of award season honors for her performance in "black swan." >> i truly sincerely wish that the prize tonight was to get to work with my fellow nominees. i'm so in awe of you. >> reporter: and melissa leo accepted best supporting actress honors for the fighter. and accidentally let a four letter word slip during her acceptance speech. meanwhile christian bale won supporting actor honors. >> what a room full of talented inspirational people. >> reporter: the night's other winners included toy story 3 which won best animated feature. the sci-fi epic inception took home four awards and the drama about the origins of facebook, "the social network," scored three awards, including best adapted screen play. after the show, it was time to

celebrate, the nominees headed to some of the post-oscar after parties, including the governor's ball and the ever popular vanity fair party. in hollywood, i'm stephanie stanton. >> all right, thank you so much. on capitol hill, the clock is ticking for lawmakers to come to terms on the nation's budget before it expires. meanwhile president obama is encouraging the nation's governors to work together as the standoff over union rights and budget cuts in wisconsin enters a third week. tracie potts joins us from washington with more. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. protesters may have been forced out of wisconsin's state capitol, but their budget battle continues with democrats hiding out across state lines preventing a vote on what the governor says could cost them 1500 jobs. he wants to make deep cuts including cutting collective bargaining for state employees. governor scott walker on "meet the press" says if they don't act soon, the state could lose

$155 million by tomorrow. now, here in washington, they're focusing on the budget, also. will there be a government shutdown by friday, democrats and republicans trying to come up with a compromise that at this point looks like it may include extending the current budget for another two weeks, but with $4 billion in cuts. the problem is they're looking at the smallest part of the budget and over the weekend we saw president obama hosting the nation's governors at a lavish white house event. they'll return today to talk about those budget problems. >> tracie potts in washington. thank you. and here's a look at other stories making news early today in america. in massachusetts workers inside a coffee shop received quite a jolt when a minivan came crashing through the front entrance. fortunately business was slow at the time of the crash, so no one was injured. the driver of the toyota said her gas pedal became stuck. her claim possibly makes this another accident caused by toyota accelerator problems.

in washington, d.c., a malfunctioning escalator led to a dangerous domino effect. dozens of people tumbled over each other after the subway escalator suddenly sped up. several were injured. investigators believe brake system failure is the cause. and in georgia, it was the end of an era. 150 pounds of explosives brought down a building that was once a part of franklin delano roosevelt's public housing policy. hundreds watched as the building that stood for 70 years was reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds. low income housing will be built in its place. and finally in ohio, shirtless men and bikini clad women braved frigid conditions for a good cause. more than 500 ran and dove in to lake erie to fundraise for the special olympics. organizers expect to raise more than the $90,000 total they took in last year. and now for a look at your national and regional weather,

here is bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning to you, bill. good morning. they say march comes in like a lion, but how about february ending like a lion. we're watching big time thunderstorms. we have heavy rain moving up through the ohio valley and new york state and pennsylvania and the threat of tornadoes ti continues this morning. it's right along this front where the problems exist. we've had a couple torontos. haven't seen too much damage, but around st. louis, there are power outages. last night early, there was a lot of hail back here in kansas and central missouri. so currently here is a look at the worst of the storms. the potential for tornadoes continues this morning right along the ohio river from louisville to bowling green, nashville down to memphis. that's the area of concern for tornadoes this morning. and then all those storms will head to the east coast this afternoon. so be prepared in d.c., new york

and philly, you'll be next. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. so thunderstorms in the forecast for just about everyone in the southeast today including the atlanta area, including a few strong storms with gusty winds. nashville, your tornado is tornadoes. we'll watch you closely. so a violent day today. a lot calmer tomorrow. what to look out for on wall street this week, the oracle speaks and what bugs americans about cell phones. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, more headlines from charlie sheen and a sneak peek at his exclusive interview coming up later this morning on the "today" show. some great finishes in the nba, baseball loses a legend and a cheerleader takes the game into his own hands. you're watching "early today."

>> good morning, and welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. pressure is mounting on gadhafi's faltering regime. opposition groups are expanding their control. that comes as the obama administration says it is ready to offer, quote, any type of assistance to those seeking to oust the long time leader. for the second sunday in a row, a massive police turnout in china blocked online calls for pro democracy demonstrations modelled after the uprisings in egypt and tunesia. and in shanghai, street cleaning trucks repeatedly drove through busy districts preventing crowds from forming. and unrest has spread to oman where riot police clashed with demonstrators. 64 were killed as security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets. america's last surviving veteran of world war i has died.

frank buckles passed away peacefully at his virginia home yesterday. buckles had turned 110 years old earlier this month. and newly released footage from nasa shows a powerful eruption on the sun that lasted for an hour and a half kicking up a large wave of magnetic plasma. the blast is not expected to affect our satellites or electronic systems. and now here is an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,130 after adding 61 points friday. the s&p rose 13 points. the nasdaq was up 43. and taking a look at overseas trading this morning in tokyo, the nikkei gained 97 points while in hong kong, the hang seng surged 325. well, stocks roared back friday giving investors hope the backward slide may be over, but there is one major wild card.

oil. will it continue to drop as it did at the end of last week? overnight in asian trade, oil was up flirting with $100 a barrel. along with oil, traders will be on the lookout for friday's payrolls report for signs the job market recovery remains on track. meanwhile, comments tuesday from ben bernanke will be listened to keenly for clues about when and if the fed's quantitative easing program will end. traders may get a boost from comments from warren buffett this weekend saying he is bullish on the economy and that berkshire hathaway will engage in record capital spending this year. today new restrictions on short selling go into effect with a so-called circuit breaker kicking in after a 10% price decline from the previous day's close. elsewhere, the new york "post" reported toys "r" us is looking to raise around $800 million in an april ipo. and finally, is cell phone etiquette an oxymoron?

three-quarters of americans say cell phone manners have gotten worse over the past year. the most annoying, talking while driving, followed by talking loudly in public. one in five check their cell phone before getting out of bed every morning. guilty as charged. college basketball almost has a cheerleader gate. and baseball says good-bye to the duke. plus, could the new star duo of the new york knicks keep up with the league's number one alley-oop combo? your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. severe weather is moving to the east coast on this monday and a new powerful storm in the pacific northwest. your monday forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, while most eyes were on the oscar telecast, there was an intriguing match-up of the miami heat and the knicks. here's nbc's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> good monday morning. the new look knicks got their first real test and they passed with flying colors against the heat. late in the fourth. it wasn't amar'e or carmelo who got the ball, but billups.

nailed the three and gave them the lead. lebron james drove, but the knicks defense came up big. stoudemire with the rejection. this time from beyond the arc, but no good and the knicks won it 91-86. great finish between the suns and pacers. channing for the win. nothing but net. suns won in dramatic fashion 110-108. sad news from baseball. duke snyder passed away yesterday. the face of the brooklyn dodgers for nearly a decade, snyder led brooklyn to their only world series title in 1955 to win another as a dodger in 1959. duke snyder was 84 years old. crazy finish to the pitt/louisville game. watch the cheerleader. he thought the game was over. picked up the ball and tossed it in the air. you can't do that. the ref called a technical. pitt made both free throws. now down three. panthers had a chance to tie. thankfully for the cheerleader the shot was off the mark and

louisville won it 62-59. the moral of the story, if you're a cheerleader, keep your hands on your pom-poms. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. >> narrator: "early today" sports is brought to you by touch of gray. get rid of some gray, never all. an oscar recap and an upset at the box office. your early morning entertainment headlines are straight ahead. plus 99.9% of americans love bacon. and this weekend in iowa, they celebrated bacon as food and an art form. you're watching "early today."

going to be a violent day. severe thunderstorms in the yellow, slight risk of severe storms from the gulf up into the mid-atlantic, but the area of red is moderate risk. potential of strong storms early this morning with tornadoes. we'll watch you closely. so as we go throughout the day, behind the storm system we're clear and cooler, but the east coast just get ready for the thunderstorms down the during. if you're watching us on wcau nbc 10 in philadelphia, pennsylvania, experiment with a full sized 3d model of inventions by the genius of the renaissance at the franklin institute. and that's your early today event of the day. >> here is an early look at this

morning's headlines in entertainment. here's a quick recap of the major oscars handed out last night. best supporting actress, the fighter's melissa leo who also managed to drop an f-bomb in her acceptance speech, and best supporting actor christian bale for the fighter. best actress went to natalie portman. and best actor, colin firth for "the king's speech." best picture, best director and best original screen play also went to "the king's speech." and now at the box office, a surprise winner. "gnomeo and juliet" with $14.2 million. the comedy "hall pass" finished a disappointing second with just $13.4 million. and nicolas cage bombed in "drive angry," finishing ninth with just $5 million. finally, the new york "post" reports this morning charlie sheen will file suit against cbs as early as today for $320 million claiming mental anguish. sheen appears later this morning

on nbc's "today" show in a one-on-one interview with jeff rossen. >> you're gri. >> i'm not angry, i'm passionate. everybody thinks i should be like begging for my job back and i'm just going to forewarn them that it's everybody else that will be begging me for their job back. >> didn't cbs have a right to shut their show down? they're reading about you partying at all hours of the night, taking drugs, abusing alcohol. it's their show. >> epic epic behavior. no. because after reading about that, then they observed a guy hitting every mark, nailing every line, every joke. with a full house screaming. >> don't miss jeff rossen's entire interview later this morning on "today" right here on this nbc station. so what did you position about the oscars? >> i watched the beginning. i know you're the biggest cheerleader in the world for e "the king's speech."

>> how many times have i told you to see that movie? >> yes. some day maybe. >> you have to pick it up. i swear. dvd, i'm telling you, amazing. >> maybe you'll have to get it for me. >> okay. this comes to us from who channel 13 in des moines, iowa where the hottest ticket in town had people salivating for a taste of sizzling satisfaction. hundreds of bacon lovers from all over showed up for the fourth annual blue ribbon bacon festival. the celebration of all things bacon featured a variety of treats ranging from blt pizza to bacon bourbon caramel corn. organizers say each year their greasy get-together moves closer to becoming global. kind of like the oscars. i'm veronica de la cruz and this is "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

>> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning, everyone. we had some thunderstorms last night. i think the drive time will come off okay. the temperatures are in the 40's. we're picking up some scattered light showers and sprinkles. some strong thunderstorms could develop this afternoon. we could see some severe weather. a mix of sun and clouds. high temperature in the upper 60s to around 70. showers and thunderstorms will

become likely. some of those will be strong. we will check the seven-day forecast in just a few minutes. >> thank you. 43 degrees on tv hill. here's a look ahead to 11 news today. >> thousand are expected for a protest in annapolis today. i will tell you why. >> can a divided government avoid a shutdown? i am kate amara in washington. >> in howard county, we have some closures in a fact. [ alarm clock buzzing, indistinct conversations ] [ female announcer ] important events can sneak up on you. oh, i am not ready. can i have a couple weeks? [ female announcer ] but with yoplait light's two week tune up, you could be ready. you could lose 5 pounds in 2 weeks when you replace breakfast and lunch with a fruit, grain, and yoplait light. betsy bets. you haven't changed a bit. oh...neither have you... sean. well, yeah. [ female announcer ] go to yoplait.com

to start your two week tune up. i think it can. one of the challenges for kayla being gluten-free is actually finding choices the whole family will love. then we discovered chex cereals. five flavors of chex are gluten-free, including the honey nut flavor, and that's amazing to a mom like me. as a parent you don't want to have to tell youkids "n all the time. it's nice for me to be able to say "yes" to something that they want to eat.

[ male announcer ] chex cereal. five flavors. gluten free. [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live, local, late-breaking, this is wbal-tv 11 news today. >> good morning. happy monday. i am mindy basara. >> and i am stan stovall. thank you for joining us this morning. >> tony pann has a quick look at today's forecast. good morning. >> things are pretty quiet right now. it is in the 40's. we will make it close to 70